Story highlights

Those who failed can buy guns at a gun show or online; that makes no sense, he says

Kelly: Majority of Americans and gun owners support background checks for all

I served in the armed forces for 25 years, but until January 8, 2011, I didn't think about guns or gun violence that much. I had other things to think about -- my children, traveling between Houston and Tucson and Washington to see my wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and of course, flying the space shuttle.

Like lots of people, every time there was a mass shooting, with lots of news coverage, I watched, but I wasn't aware of the statistics and of how gun violence permeates our country.

Mark Kelly

Then Gabby was shot and six of her constituents were murdered during a "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, Arizona. During her long and ongoing recovery, I started paying a lot more attention.

I'm a numbers guy, a statistics guy -- and what I've learned has shocked me. Almost 100 people a day die from a gun, 33 are murdered. We've got 20 times the murder rate of similar countries.

I've watched the globe spin past below me from the window of the space shuttle. And so my perspective has changed. I see this epidemic of gun violence as a crisis, because I know that every statistic is a citizen --- someone like my wife, or Hadiya Pendleton's mom, Cleopatra, who says simply about her daughter, murdered senselessly in Chicago, "a piece of my heart is gone." And, excuse the reference, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that while this issue is complicated, there are things we can do -- now, together -- that will reduce violence.

Like background checks. Right now, we have two systems. Some people, like me, when we buy a gun, we go through a background check. It takes about five minutes -- trust me, I'm not known to be a patient guy, and it didn't take more than a few minutes when I bought a rifle this past November.

Ninety-one percent of background checks are completed instantaneously, and they don't lead to a government database. And they work. I passed my background check and got my gun, and since 1994, more than 2 million folks -- among them, criminals and dangerously mentally ill people -- failed their background checks. But we don't know which of those millions just got in their car and drove to a gun show, or home to their computer to go on the Internet -- both places where anyone can buy a gun without a background check.

That doesn't make sense. It's like saying, hey, criminals, to board the plane, either go through a metal detector and be checked against the terrorist watch list, or, if you prefer, walk right down that red carpet and take a seat, no search necessary. Which would you choose?

That's why Gabby and I are so determined to get a universal background check in place. It's simple, it's not a Republican or a Democratic issue, and it closes a clear loophole that puts our kids and our communities at risk, and it does it in a way that respects the Second Amendment rights of people like me.

We aren't naive in thinking that expanded background checks will solve all our problems overnight, but they are a great first step that even gun owners support.

So, I'm putting everything I learned from my time in the Navy and at NASA -- 375 aircraft carrier landings, 39 combat missions and more than 50 days in space -- to working with Gabby and Americans For Responsible Solutions' more than 100,000 members to get this done.

When you're at the controls of a plane or the space shuttle, you rely on data. You analyze it methodically; you evaluate it objectively. The data around background checks is clear: Up to 40% of gun transfers are made without background checks, and a national survey of inmates found that nearly 80% of those who used a handgun in a crime acquired it without a background check. That tells me that criminals are getting guns, because we're making it too easy.

And 82% of U.S. gun owners -- including more than 70% of NRA members -- support criminal background checks for all gun sales. Ninety-two percent of all households in the country support universal background checks. That tells me that citizens across the country want Congress to get this done, because they know it will keep us safer.

That's a clear path, right there. We can get there if we all raise our voices.